Beautiful, atmospheric, flowing stop-motion animation is what really comes to mind after watching this exquisitely crafted film. It's a lovely work of art. Animation-wise, there is no comparison to Burton's past classic, "The Nightmare Before Christmas"(1993). Corpse Bride is infinitely superior, and makes The Nightmare Before Christmas look very shoddy. It's incredible to see how well stop-motion technology has progressed in just 12 years. Despite this actuality, for many(including myself), Corpse Bride will probably live in that film's shadow for quite some time. I started watching this film really expecting The Nightmare Before Chrismas #2. Not quite the fairest way to ever approach a film. In its own right, Corpse Bride is certainly an entertaining film.

The first time I watched it, my opinion was still pending. It took me a couple more viewings to help me decide that I did indeed like it for its creativeness and unique feel. I loved how they made the living world very dreary, while the dead were very blithesome and spirited. And though the living world was much more artistically gratifying to watch, the dead world was just sheer fun. But, it doesn't go without flaws, of course. It moved much too fast and went on without much development, like characteristics and motivation. Victor wasn't quite the best or most endearing character and his sudden decision to stay married to Emily, I had a lot of trouble with. And personally, in this film, Victor killing himself by poison didn't seem like that much of a sacrifice to me. Death looks like heaven! Maybe you could say he wanted to stay for Victoria, but he isn't that much of a passionate character, anyway. The characters also lacked for me. Emily's plot was somewhat endearing, but I really had a hard time feeling for any of the characters, except for Victoria, until the ending, which was actually very touching and helped me feel a bit closer to all the characters.

Borderlining on brilliance, but just not quite there for me, because of a few of the reasons above. Enjoyable and fun, and absolutely breath-taking animation take this film far with me, but it didn't blow me away. Still, it's definitely worth checking out and I will be watching this one again. It's one of the more refreshing animated films I can remember and I just can not forget that haunting ending.

After viewing the movie a second and third time I HAVE to rewrite this review.

I give this movie 4 stars just for the animation and visual aspect. The character designs and animation are the best you can get.

The story is fine for what it is and it holds up pretty good. It's nothing real deep or anything and the characters were pretty much just stock characters but since when has Mr. Burton been the greatest at telling stories?

He always concentrates more on interesting visuals then on storytelling.

As for the songs, they were well written, catchy, and I enjoyed them.
The Wedding Song was my favorite.

So all in all, a very enjoyable movie and a feast for the eyes.

I give it an A+ visually and a B+ story-wise.

If you are into necrophilia, this movie may disappoint you as the main character Victor and the Corpse have a strictly platonic relationship. The film opens with Victor and Victoria preparing to meet the day before their arranged marriage. While both sets of parents are creepy and self serving, Vic and Vicky are both genuine and likeable good people. When the two meet, there is a spark that makes them think the arrangement may not be so bad. Unfortunately, Vic being a bit of a klutz keeps messing up the rehearsal. When he goes outside to practice his vows, he accidentally marries a corpse.

There are a number of good things going for this film. Vic and Vicky do manage to generate a real romantic air without the film being cheesy at all. The audience really pulls for them to be together in the face of their misfortune. The Corpse also is a sympathetic character, not a monster, who the audience wants to find peace and a happily ever after. Stop motion animation can be distracting if done poorly, but the smoothness of the effect in Corpse Bride is incredible, and the medium suits itself perfectly to this film's gothic feel.

While the art designs are intricate and creative, Corpse Bride falls victim to comparison of Burton's other masterpieces, The Nightmare Before Christmas in particular. Compared to Nightmare, Corpse Bride's characters seem almost unimaginative, and the dead seem fairly tame. My favorite designs are of the land of the living. Burton made an interesting choice to make the land of the living very cold and dark almost exclusively using black white and gray colors for everything. In contrast, the land of the dead uses a much more extensive color palette incorporating blues and greens into the skin tones of the characters. Thus, the land of the dead is given a warmer and more lively mood. In theory, this is a clever creative choice, though the colorful cast of dead seem so unnatural that the colors just don't work. Tim Burton's Corpse Bride also contains several musical pieces. While adequate, none of them are as catchy as Nightmare's masterful score. Danny Elfman really dropped the ball here, as a couple more memorable tunes would have really invigorated the film.

While this film may never escape the shadow of Burton's Nightmare, it is a good film in its own right with a surprising amount of heart. It's just that I expected a bit more, and I could't stop thinking that I had already seen a better version of this movie. Regrettably, I can only give this film a B-.

This movie isn't as funny as it ought to be, but comedy really isn't the point of the movie. Corpse Bride is FAR more satisfying than Nightmare Before Christmas, which I found to be rather dry upon viewing it recently. The songs are rather dry and out of place, but the movie's got a brilliant visual style. Kinda reminds me of the old adventure game Grim Fandango. The weak point is the very "I saw that one coming" villain, but the trio of main characters are wonderfully realized. The story is a standard "love mix up" fare, but it works. You can't say that the final scene isn't brilliant and touching.

Ok well... I liked the visuals alot. It had some amusing songs while the opening was... less then what I hoped for. But I could have delt with all of this. While im not sure if im the only one who felt this way but what was up with the ending! I mean he didnt even realy know the one he winded up going with at all... not saying the dead one was a better option but Even though it may seem odd I would have preferd that.... Everything was good except the ending and opening few minuts in my opinion.

Looks like everyone shares the same opinion of The Corpse Bride: it was brilliant, but not quite as brilliant as it ought to have been.

The good points: I loved the color and lighting, the general atmosphere. The character designs were brilliant! It was a treat just to watch some of the characters. And there were lots of cute little in-jokes, like Victor/Victoria and the Harryhausen piano. The return-of-the-dead scenes...well, I just liked them for some reason!

The not-so-good points (I wouldn't go so far as to call them bad!) It's inevitable that the Corpse Bride will be compared to Nightmare Before Christmas. Well, I'm afraid that none of the songs in Corpse Bride are as charming and singable as the Nightmare songs. And Victor and Victoria's devotion to each other doesn't seem to be overpowering enough to make the romance aspect really gripping. I mean, at no point does passion really seem to overcome them...it feels more like friendship than love. Victor seems...well...too gentle (or spineless) for real passion.

But the Corpse Bride is still a brilliant piece of work, and very enjoyable.

I'm going to go against the grain on this one. I actually preferred this movie to 'Nightmare Before Christmas', which I just didn't get - partly because we don't have Halloween in Australia, and anything to do with Christmas gets on my goat.

The first 20 or 30 minutes of 'Corpse Bride' are gorgeous, and look like an Edward Gorey story come to life. Everything is set in wonderfully dreary monotone grey, and the character designs are brilliant.

For those who don't know, Victor, hero of the film, is trapped in an arranged marriage, though when he meets his betrothed they get on fabulously and decide the wedding is a good idea after all. Unfortunately, not long afterwards, Victor accidentally becomes engaged to a dead woman (it would spoil it to reveal how) and ends up in the underworld - which by contrast with the drab, gothic world of the living, is often colourful and boisterous. Victor now has to decide between a living woman who he loves, and a dead one who he eventually ends up fancying a bit, too.

I would have loved the entire thing to have taken place in the 'living' world with its wonderful, monotonous greys and Dickensian characters, and I found the underworld sequences less impressive and frivolous and more reminiscent of 'Nightmare Before Christmas'.

There were some weak points. Things moved a little too quickly, characters were a bit sketchy and motivations weren't as well developed as they should have been, but this was for the most part a finely crafted and unique movie (certainly visually) which nearly scored higher.

Incidentally it's a bit unfair to compare it to Nightmare Before Christmas, which Burton didn't direct. Here he is co-director and co-producer. On 'Nightmare' he was co-producer, though his vision obviously loomed large over proceedings.

I must say Burton's movies IMO have ranged from awful (Mars Attacks) to magnificent (Ed Wood). This is one of his better ones. It would be interesting if he turned to animation more often, as he could be a real auteur, if he isn't already.

This was an excellent film. It had that "old fashioned goth" look and it has it's wonderful bits of humor. The story was good and the characters were quite interesting. The only real flaw of the film is that how Vicent got into Underworld. It was never really explained clearly. I can't compare it to "The Nightmare Before Christmas" because I haven't seen the film in years. But still, this movie was excellent.

I think it's a curse of reviewing animated films for so many years that it now takes *A LOT* to floor me... and while I think "Corpse Bride" is a great film, better by far than most I've seen in theatres of late... it unfortunately didn't blow me out of the water.

On the plus side--GREAT character designs. I love the look of the characters in this film. While Victor looks adorable as a stop-motion version of Johnny Depp, compared to some of the other characters his design looks very basic. I love how the other characters are so exaggerated--particularly the 'breathers' (as the film terms those still among the living)... Victoria's hunched nanny and Victor's driver with a slightly pocked and reddened nose. Wonderful little details.

And animation... what can I say? It's stop-motion and anyone who succeeds at it is both brilliant and insane.

Music? Yes, this is a musical although not succeeding in that area as much as I thought it should. I think the best thing I can say about the 'musical' aspect is that it didn't make me want to rip my hair out.

Where this film falls flat for me... well, inevitably you find yourself comparing this film with the incredible 'Nightmare Before Christmas'... both Jack and Sally are pro-active characters which makes them good heroes... Jack, while misguided, goes after what he wants. Victor, Victoria and even the Corpse Bride are pawns of circumstance... a murder victim, an arranged marriage, a mistaken vow... it takes most of the movie for any of these characters to figure out what they want and go after it... which kinda makes the movie meander a bit and it makes the resolution at the end not quite as powerful.

Don't get me wrong... it'll still make you laugh, it'll still tweak those bittersweet heartstrings... but if you're looking for a repeat of 'Nightmare Before Christmas', it's probably best to leave those kind of expectations by the door. This is a different sort of movie, but still definitely one worth seeing.